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January 2008 Entries

MSDN Code Gallery

In case anyone else missed it besides me, MSDN launched it's Code Gallery site this week.

You can check it out at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/

thanks to Somasegar's WebLog :

The MSDN Code Gallery is a portal for snippets, samples and other resources. In it you can find pages that describe samples and supporting documents including screenshots and design documents. In addition, you will find hosted conversations about these samples, sample projects or other resources that have been provided to the community. This destination is open to the entire community to contribute content to.

posted @ Thursday, January 31, 2008 3:01 PM | Feedback (0) |

Great Download - Query Express

While checking different tools lists of people I admire, (Hanselman's is still the best) I came across a great little exe called Query Express. It's a single EXE, no install no mess. It's written in .net and you can get the exe or the .net project to compile yourself if you are paranoid. It also sounds like you can take the project and roll it into your own commercial apps for free. It's compatible with 1.1 and 2.0 and up.

Ok so it's a single, no install exe, but what does it do? It's basically a Query Analyzer standalone that can talk to any SQL database, as well as Oracle and any Ole-db. I actually dug out the connection string for access and was able to do some work on a server on an app that uses an access DB with no access installed on the machine.

I actually used it today at work twice. If you get stuck for the odd connection string, I recommend

http://www.connectionstrings.com/

In query express you can also right click on tables and fields to get some common queries stubbed out for you.

download it from : http://www.albahari.com/queryexpress.html

add it to your portable apps thumb drive today.

posted @ Wednesday, January 30, 2008 10:17 PM | Feedback (1) |

No More MS Acropolis

Talking to someone at our user group this evening, I got the bad news that the Acropolis project will see no more CTP releases. It seems that the project is now in the hands of the Patterns & Practices group. From the Acropolis website :

"We are very excited to be entering the next phase of the project where we will begin to roll many of the Acropolis concepts into future versions of the .NET Framework for the desktop and Silverlight. Unfortunately, while we figure out exactly how to go about this, we have decided not to release any more Acropolis CTP's. We’re going to keep the current CTP bits available to allow you to continue prototyping and evaluating the Acropolis concepts. There will be no new functionality added to the Acropolis CTPs but we do hope that you will continue to provide feedback to us on what you like or don’t like."

and

"We are very excited to announce that we are going to be working closely with the Microsoft Patterns & Practices team to provide guidance (samples, applications blocks, patterns and so on) for building composite client applications for .NET Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008. As part of that effort we want to engage with those that have been following the Acropolis project to ensure that this guidance meets your needs. Glenn Block, the Patterns & Practices client product manager, has much more information about the Composite Applications for Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 project here."

They plan to release more info in the next couple months.

I guess it would be a safe bet that I can scrap my Acropolis session at New England Code Camp 9.

posted @ Tuesday, January 29, 2008 10:13 PM | Feedback (0) |

Portable Apps and You

Well I've seen these about thirty times now, tried them once or twice, but now that I am doing a little more work with my side company, I've found this great tool for becoming a bit more mobile. Check out the suite here. You can run Open Office from a USB drive. Never be without the ability to open word, excel, access or powerpoint files again. I recommend trying the initial suite on that extra USB drive you have laying around for starters, then check out the whole apps list. Adding more portable apps from the site to your stick is as easy as pie. From the list you can make sure you will never be without a to open PDF, or a .ZIP RAR, TAR, and other popular compressed file formats, or connect to a needed FTP site. There are dozens of others, ranging from dev tools(a pretty good front-page clone) to utilities (use eraser to completely wipe info from a hard disk). There is also a portable version of Firefox (that you can add your favourite dev extensions like Web Developer and Firebug ). There are also tips on portableapps.com on how to speed up Firefox portable (that also work on regular FFox). Definitely worth a few hours of time play with. Worth having an old drive in your glove box for that visit to the random relative or friend that "needs your help with something"

Also if you haven't checked out Web Developer and Firebug for firefox, you owe it to yourself as a developer!

PS Don't forget to encrypt that drive with TrueCrypt if you are running around with sensitive customer data!!!!

posted @ Tuesday, January 29, 2008 3:38 PM | Feedback (0) |

Top 10 Reasons to not buy Visual Studio 2008

Bravo Dave, Bravo!

http://blog.dmbcllc.com/2007/11/30/top-ten-reasons-to-not-buy-visual-studio-2008/

There's both a movie and some text, enjoy!

posted @ Tuesday, January 29, 2008 2:54 PM | Feedback (0) |

CONGRATS to S.B. Chatterjee

Wow, didn't realize I was this slow on things.

CONGRATS to S.B. Chatterjee on his MVP for Office Groove!

See more here : http://weblogs.asp.net/sbchatterjee/archive/2008/01/13/microsoft-mvp-award-for-groove.aspx

Way to go man, 'bout time!

posted @ Tuesday, January 29, 2008 2:51 PM | Feedback (0) |

Sony Vaio, Vista & Wireless

Anyone having problems where they get an intermittent connection to a Wireless AP using a Sony Vaio laptop running Vista? The only thing that seems odd to me is that you have to set the Wireless AP settings in both Windows Network & Sharing and also in the Vaio Communications center. I have a friend who can connect fine, but every so often, only for 10 to 15 seconds, the wireless LAN drops to "Local Only" and after a couple page refreshes (and no other interaction from the user) the connection is good for a while. We had days where my she was able to surf 2-3 hours with no noticeable interruption, other days were she drops 15 times an hour.

Any help here or in email would help, there are about 100000 "professional" posts on various forums that people claim to fix this, but non of the problems are the same as mine.

Thanks in advance.

posted @ Tuesday, January 29, 2008 2:41 PM | Feedback (2) |

New England Code Camp 9 - April 5 & 6

Well, Chris Bowen has posted it on his blog, so we are official; Code Camp 9 Will be April 5th and 6th in Waltham. Hard to believe it has been 9 already. He is also looking for a subtitle to number 9. Also if you have a little artistic talent, maybe you can help him design a new logo for us? Head over to his blog for all the info.

Also Registration and Call for Speakers will be posted there soon, so keep your eyes open.

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